American top diplomat John Kerry became the highest US official to visit Hiroshima this week. Kerry said his tour of the site where an American atomic bomb obliterated the Japanese city nearly 70 years ago was “gut-wrenching.”

Many observers around the world would agree with the US Secretary of State’s choice of words. But not for the meaning of horror he apparently intended. The sight of Kerry and other G7 foreign ministers laying wreaths at a memorial to the victims of that atomic holocaust was indeed “gut-wrenching” — considering the hypocrisy, deceit and criminal use of weapons of mass destruction by the US.The G7 ministers then issued a joint Hiroshima statement which purports to call for a world free from nuclear weapons.

Now it is being mooted that US President Barack Obama may make a visit to Hiroshima next month during another G7 summit for world leaders. He would be the first sitting US president to ever do so, and the event, it is said, would underline a speech he made in Prague in 2009 during his first year in office when Obama called then for a world free from nuclear weapons. For that speech, Obama was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

Oddly enough, perhaps, seven years on, Obama has done nothing to reduce the US stockpile of some 1,500 nuclear warheads. In fact, last year the president committed Washington to a three-decade upgrade of its arsenal which will cost some $330 billion per decade — or $1 trillion all told.

In typical “mixed signal” fashion — a euphemism for lying — the Obama administration is talking out of one side of its mouth about nuclear-weapons-free world, while out of the other side it is giving orders for a massive, unprecedented rearmament.

The nuclear arsenal upgrade ordered under Obama includes replacing plutonium cores in warheads, modifying tail-fins of bombs and developing a range of so-called mini-nukes, as well as hypersonic missiles that would enable first-strike potential.

So when Obama’s foreign minister, John Kerry, laid a wreath at the memorial for the Hiroshima bomb victims and talked about “working for world peace” it is enough to make a sane person reach for the sick bag — given that his government and any subsequent one in Washington has no intention of disarming its power to destroy the planet.

As a signatory to the 1968 Non-Proliferation Treaty, the US — as with all signatories — is obligated to completely disarm. Nearly 50 years on, far from disarming, it is assiduously rearming, in flagrant violation of treaty commitment. Since the US is the first nation to develop these monstrous weapons and actually use them, the moral burden is on the US to begin disarmament.

Walking alongside Kerry at the Hiroshima memorial was British foreign minister Philip Hammond, who also donned a suitably solemn face. Yet, only last year, Hammond announced that his government would consider re-installing American nuclear weapons on British soil — allegedly to defend Europe from Russian aggression. “Aggression” that the Americans and British have done so much to exaggerate, nay fabricate, for geopolitical reasons. So much for making the world safe from nuclear weapons!

One gets the distinct impression that Kerry’s visit to Hiroshima — followed possibly by Obama — is all a cynical public relations exercise to burnish the international image of the world’s biggest warmongering rogue state as somehow a nation of peaceful intent.

The reality of wanton US belligerence, and that of its lackeys like Britain, is so egregious that they need to cover it up with flowers and superficial emotions supposedly dedicated to A-bomb victims.

A couple of further discordant signs of American raw, criminal power: on the same weekend that Kerry flew to Japan, the US air force reportedly moved a fleet of B-52 bombers to Qatar in the Persian Gulf. These nuclear-capable aircraft are a later generation of the B-29 which dropped the A-bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki on 6 and 9 August, 1945, respectively, killing some 200,000 people, mainly civilians.

The B-52s assigned to Qatar are being prepared for bombing missions in Iraq and Syria, allegedly against terror groups, which the US in fact created in the first place to topple foreign regimes that it disapproves of. There is no indication that the B-52s sent to Qatar at the weekend are fitted with nuclear warheads. That is not the point.Rather the point is that while a high US official emotively talks about world peace at a memorial where America air power obliterated whole populations, at the very same time this same country is moving nuclear-capable aircraft to carry out bombing missions in foreign nations — all with the cavalier ease as if it has a divine right to do so. Bombing foreign countries at will is the exceptional American arrogance.

Another gut-wrenching anomaly about Kerry’s diplomatic theatrics in Hiroshima is that Washington said that it would not be issuing an apology over the A-bombings. The official narrative in Washington and among many ordinary Americans is that the bombings were necessary to end the Pacific War in 1945. Those officials claims have been extensively debunked by historians as bogus. The US simply wanted to demonstrate to the world and the Soviet Union in particular its immense new power. It was an act of state terrorism, as argued in a previous column.

But even if Washington is permitted to peddle its risible distortion of history, what is exceedingly chilling is that it refuses to apologize for such a barbarous act of mass extermination. Even if the US believes in its claim about swiftly bringing an end to the Pacific War, one would think that at least from a moral, humane point of view an expression of remorse for wiping out so many Japanese lives would still be appropriate.

Alas, no. The absence of apology is a clear message that Washington thinks it had the right to drop the bombs and, moreover, continues to have the right to use weapons of mass destruction. This is consonant with the doctrine of “pre-emptive first strike” that US administrations, including Obama’s, reserve.

American politics has always been prone to double-dealing and conceited deception. But the Obama administration has taken the black arts to a whole new level.

Waxing lyrical about a nuclear free world, and picking up a Nobel laureate in the process, the Obama administration is actually moving towards developing more sophisticated nuclear weapons and making a world war more likely.

US foreign policies of antagonizing Russia and China over trumped-up disputes, commensurate with reckless military posturing towards both nuclear powers, are an integral part of the inherent aggression that underpins American power.

No other nation has waged as many wars as the US since its inception as a modern state and certainly since the end of the Second World War. Tens of millions of people have died as a result of US military aggression in every continent.

The horrific deaths at Hiroshima and Nagasaki continue to reverberate and manifest to this day in the Middle East and elsewhere from American rogue-state terrorism. And yet, sickeningly, this criminal regime postures as a force for peace, the global policeman, or as the Washington Post described Obama this week, the “non-proliferation crusader.”

Laying down a wreath is so easy. But when will the American people demand their rulers to lay down their weapons of mass destruction — once and for all?

___________________

Author and journalist. Finian Cunningham has written extensively on international affairs, with articles published in several languages. He is a Master’s graduate in Agricultural Chemistry and worked as a scientific editor for the Royal Society of Chemistry, Cambridge, England, before pursuing a career in newspaper journalism. He is also a musician and songwriter. For nearly 20 years, he worked as an editor and writer in major news media organisations, including The Mirror, Irish Times and Independent.

Monday, April 11, 2016(2 comments)Gut-Wrenching US Hypocrisy at Hiroshima The horrific deaths at Hiroshima and Nagasaki continue to reverberate and manifest to this day in the Middle East and elsewhere from American rogue-state terrorism. Laying down a wreath is so easy. But when will the American people demand their rulers to lay down their weapons of mass destruction — once and for all?

Saturday, April 9, 2016Putin Smear Backfires on Britain When news headlines on the so-called Panama Papers were circulated in Western mainstream media earlier this week, the main focus was on speculation that Putin was somehow implicated in scamming millions from tax avoidance. The sensationalist speculations had the hallmark features of another wild-eyed smear-job. All hype and no substance.

Sunday, March 27, 2016(2 comments)Europe’s Egocentric Terror Grief Listening to French and British leaders in particular talking about “fighting terrorism” and sympathy for victims is stomach-turning. This is because France, Britain and the European Union as a whole have played a nefarious role in creating the very terrorism that is rebounding on European civilians.

Wednesday, March 16, 2016Russia’s Latest Move in Syria Serves to Reinforce the Diplomatic Track The Syrian government’s position of rejecting preconditions is in fact consistent with Russia’s position, which in turn complies with United Nations Resolution 2254 mandating the Geneva diplomatic process. The fate of Assad or the presidency is for the Syrian nation to decide alone, at some future date, without external interference.

Thursday, March 10, 2016(2 comments)Bazooka Joe Biden goes ballistic… with hypocrisy Joe Biden speaking in a state this week that continues to illegally occupy Palestinian land in defiance of countless UN resolutions, a state which possesses nuclear weapons outside of any international control, and yet Biden chooses to focus his admonishment on Iran based on spurious complaints.

Tuesday, March 8, 2016(2 comments)Smelling EU fear, Turkey moves in for $6.6bn kill The refugee pathway into Europe has thus been blockaded with this latest EU-Turkish deal, even though there are serious ethical and legal implications over such a drastic measure. Under EU law, all refugees have the right to seek asylum. That is no longer guaranteed but any refugee boat intercepted in the Aegean will be forced back to Turkey by NATO warships.

Saturday, March 5, 2016(3 comments)Turkey Falls Under Boot of Dictatorship Brutal, chaotic scenes at the offices of Zaman newspaper in Istanbul and its related publications this weekend prove beyond doubt that Erdogan’s regime has now openly embraced dictatorship. This in a country which has a long history of military coups and genocidal authoritarianism. Turkey can no longer pretend to be a democratic state.

Tuesday, March 1, 2016(2 comments)“Supreme Leader” Trump and the Wall Street Mullahs Trump is only able to take a run at becoming US president because of his supposed vast individual wealth. His fortune was made from the kind of wheeler-dealer property capitalism that has bankrupted millions of American families and made Wall Street banks and financiers obscenely rich. The United States is for all intents and purposes a plutocracy, run by the money-mullahs of finance capitalism.

Friday, February 26, 2016(1 comments)Why “Brexit” Would Be Good News for Russia British inclusion in Europe is of paramount geopolitical advantage to Washington. Britain is crucial for driving the American wedge between Europe — especially Germany — and Russia. Perhaps the most expedient way forward is for Britain to leave the EU. From Russia’s point of view, a Brexit could be a lucky break.

Sunday, February 21, 2016(2 comments)Pentagon mercenaries: Blackwater, Al-Qaeda … what’s in a name? Washington and Britain have supplied warplanes and missiles, as well as logistics, in the Saudi-led campaign, which has resulted in thousands of civilian deaths. The involvement of Blackwater-type mercenaries — closely associated with the Pentagon — can also be seen as another form of American contribution to the Saudi-led campaign.

Saturday, February 20, 2016(3 comments)Terror in Turkey: Is Erdogan playing Washington? The notion that IS or some other Al Qaeda-linked network would carry out the latest attack in Ankara does not seem plausible. The Erdogan government may publicly claim to be part of the US-led coalition fighting against Islamist terrorism, but, as noted, there is more evidence to implicate the Ankara authorities in covertly liaising with the very same terrorists.

Tuesday, February 16, 2016(4 comments)NATO at War… on the World NATO is a warmongering machine that promotes Western hegemony in the world. It has got nothing to do with security unless you mean security for US-led capitalism. It craves a unipolar world of dominance where all countries must prostrate themselves before the masters.NATO is merely the official club formed by the Western capitalist powers to give themselves a veneer of legality and morality.

Sunday, February 14, 2016(4 comments)Why the Syria ceasefire is a long shot The Western powers and their regional partners, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Qatar in particular, are insisting — explicitly or implicitly — on their objective of ousting Assad. This premise of unlawful interference in the affairs of a sovereign state is the crux of the problem, and why the latest seeming agreement for a nationwide truce is as thin as the paper it is written on.

Thursday, February 11, 2016(2 comments)Russia, North Korea, terrorism… fear as currency of Western tyranny History has long shown that fear is the currency of rule by tyrants. Get the people to fear some external enemy and then you can command their submission to any form of control — because it’s for their “protection.” That is why alternative new outlets are so vilified by Western powers because they dispel the fiction in a way that exposes the fiction-tellers as the dupes, liars and charlatans that they are.

Thursday, February 4, 2016US Regime Change Talks on Syria hit blind alley The negotiations in the Swiss city were only into their second day — having opened on Monday, and that after a week-long delay — when UN special envoy Staffan de Mistura announced that the talks would be adjourned until February 25. Take it as read: it’s over. The peace process charade has been upended.

Thursday, January 21, 2016Why the US anti-terror coalition is failing there is substantial reason why the US-led anti-terror coalition in Iraq and Syria has not delivered decisive results. It is the same reason why Carter was joined by only six other countries in Paris this week and why there was a glaring absence of Saudi Arabia and other Arab members. These despotic regimes–whom Washington claims as “allies”–are part of the terrorist problem.

Tuesday, January 19, 2016(3 comments)Russian Red Scare No Longer Works Rather than facing the music for the widespread discontent across Europe, what Washington and its pro-Atlanticist allies like Britain are trying to do is make Russia the scapegoat. The irony is that Washington and London are seeking to blame the woes and growing disunity in Europe on Russia. When it is Washington and London who are the main reasons for why Europe appears to be coming apart at the seams.

Wednesday, January 6, 2016(5 comments)Saudis Seek Chaos to Cover Terror Tracks The mayhem unleashed by the Saudi execution of Sheikh Nimr appears to have irked Washington and other Western powers who patronize the Saudi rulers. Earlier this week, the New York Times reported that the Obama administration was “caught by surprise” and “expressed anger at the Saudis” for negligent disregard for how it would inflame the region.”

Friday, January 1, 2016(10 comments)Russia Vindicated by Terrorist Surrenders in Syria Russia’s military intervention to help its Arab ally at the end of September has been the seminal event of the year. After three months of sustained Russian aerial operations in support of the Syrian Arab Army against an array of foreign-backed mercenaries, there is an unmistakable sense that the terrorist backbone has been broken.

Wednesday, December 30, 2015(7 comments)2015 — The year Russia exposed Western barbarism Russia’s dramatic intervention in Syria has exposed what can only be described as a charade in which the US, European powers and their regional allies have been involved in trying to destroy a sovereign country through covertly supporting an array of illegally armed mercenary networks.

Friday, December 18, 2015(28 comments)CIA Smoking Gun in Latest Putin Slur Newspapers and other news outlets tend to publish the same pejorative stories about Putin at the same time. That indicates a centrally manipulating source. Some of the news coverage can be put down to “lazy journalism” or herd mentality, where some outlets just regurgitate what they deem to be “in the news” carried by others.

Monday, December 14, 2015(2 comments)The Illusion of Western News The media censorship is correlated with specific sources of commercial advertising income, which is over-riding the Western public interest in knowing what is really going on in Yemen and how their governments are involved in violations of international law, including state-sponsored terrorism.

Wednesday, December 2, 2015(5 comments)EU Rewards Turkish State Terrorism This crass move by Brussels will serve to embolden the Ankara regime in its criminal policy of fuelling regime change in Syria. It will also deepen the EU’s complicity in a criminal war of aggression on Syria. While European citizens are suffering economic austerity, soaring poverty and unemployment their governments see fit to indulge the Ankara regime with 3 billion ($3.4 billion).

Monday, November 23, 2015(2 comments)US-French Anti-Terror Coalition with Russia? French President Francois Hollande is pushing for a grand coalition to defeat the self-styled Islamic State terror group. Hollande wants the United States and Russia to join forces in a united fight. Russian President Vladimir Putin was quick to welcome the French proposal, saying that such a grand alliance is what Moscow has been advocating for months.

Wednesday, November 11, 2015(7 comments)Another Barking Mad Anti-Russian Story Russia is unfairly and unscientifically being singled out by a Western media campaign, a self-serving campaign from start to finish. It is patently following a political agenda set by Washington and its Western allies to go after Russia, to discredit and vilify, and then suitably slap sanctions on. The Western media are acting like a pack of well-trained, obedient hounds.

Sunday, November 8, 2015Russia Wins While West Spins Russia’s military operation in Syria to protect the state and its sovereignty from foreign-orchestrated mercenary terror groups has dealt a devastating blow to Washington’s covert military agenda of regime change. Washington and its allies are now being compelled to use a political means to achieve what they couldn’t otherwise pull off by covert military means.

Tuesday, November 3, 2015(2 comments)Kerry’s Bleeding Heart — Give Us a Break! What Russia and Iran should do is defeat the Washington-led axis politically, as they are doing militarily. Peace in Syria will be achieved when Washington, principally, desists from its criminal scheming and finally abides by international law.

Sunday, November 1, 2015(12 comments)US Special Forces deployed as “human shields” to salvage terror assets in Syria It soon became clear that Russia’s military intervention in Syria was a master-stroke by Putin, wiping out large swathes of the anti-government mercenaries, stabilizing the Assad government, and winning much popular support both within Syria and across the Middle East, and indeed around the world.

Sunday, October 11, 2015(4 comments)Tell Washington to Get Lost Slowly, painfully, the precise truth is emerging about Syria. Washington and its supposedly virtuous allies have been destroying Syria for nearly five years with a criminal covert war for regime change, involving the dispatch of mercenary terror groups to do the dirty work. Now that Russia has moved decisively to put an end to this criminal conspiracy, the West is up in arms over its regime-change investment being obliterated.

Friday, September 25, 2015(1 comments)Russia Checks Western Lies on Syria That US-led regime-change war has involved unleashing thousands of terrorist mercenaries on Syria. It’s a well-worn American strategy played time and again in different parts of world down through the decades. Ukraine and Yemen are two other current case studies of Washington’s covert state-sponsored terrorism.

Sunday, September 20, 2015(1 comments)West’s Proxy Jihadist Terror Network Uncovered in Yemen Given that the United States and Britain are openly supplying the Saudi-led Gulf coalition with fighter jets, bombs and logistics, the array of forces makes for a stark conclusion: the Western states are working in Yemen in direct alliance with jihadist mercenaries. Why this alarming reality is not more readily recognised is simply because Western news media are obfuscating the situation in Yemen.

Monday, September 14, 2015(2 comments)Bad Omen for Blood-Soaked Saudi Rulers Washington and the other Western powers, including the Israeli regime, are fully supportive of the House of Saud and the related Gulf monarchies in Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and Oman. These family-run oil-rich entities are armed to the teeth by the US, Britain, France and Germany — making them among the most repressive autocrats on earth.

Wednesday, September 2, 2015(4 comments)European Police “Scarier Than ISIS Terrorists” Twenty-five years after the Iron Curtain came down across Europe, a steel razor-wire curtain is going up. This is not the supposedly despotic Soviet Union — it is in the European Union. The organization that declares human rights to be its foundation and for which it was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2012.

Sunday, August 16, 2015(12 comments)“Deal or war”: Is doomed dollar really behind Obama’s Iran warning? what could really be behind Obama’s dire warning of “deal or war” is another scenario — the collapse of the US dollar, and with that the implosion of the US economy. Speaking in New York on August 11, US Secretary of State John Kerry made the candid admission that failure to seal the nuclear deal could result in the US dollar losing its status as the top international reserve currency.

Friday, July 24, 2015(1 comments)West Flirts With Fascism — Again “Disloyal Americans” is a dangerously mutable notion. Any citizen who criticizes Washington’s foreign militarism, oligarchic economic policy or its increasingly police state practices could be liable for detention without trial. Ineluctably, it seems, Western powers are moving more and more to adopt authoritarian measures against their populations.

Thursday, July 16, 2015(12 comments)Who’s Next for Berlin’s Financial Blitzkrieg? The Western media haven’t quite yet specified who the new financial dictators of Europe are. Reports refer blandly to “EU hardliners” and “tough EU leaders,” but reading between the lines it is clear that the paymaster calling the tune now for the rest of Europe is Berlin. And the tune is not melodious.

Thursday, July 2, 2015(1 comments)Greek Crisis Awaits Other NATO Partners In the deluge of Western media reportage on the Greek debt crisis, one key aspect remains strangely hidden. That is, the fact that Greece’s debt burden of $320 billion has largely been incurred from decades of exorbitant militarism. Some estimates put at least half of the total Greek debt pile — more than $150 billion — down to military spending.

Tuesday, June 30, 2015(1 comments)Greece’s Downfall and Redemption The reality is that austerity is only driving the Greek economy into further depression and debt. That inevitably means more and more of the Greek people’s sovereign rights whittled away to the point of becoming a vassal state dictated to by foreign governments and finance capital.

Friday, May 1, 2015(2 comments)Is Merkel a CIA Asset? The recent industrial spying scandal on German companies carried out by the US — with German federal collusion — and the long-time surveillance of the chancellor’s personal life points to Merkel being a compromised leader. Or, in a word: bought.

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